On the third day the Oceanus passed out of Charleston harbour, saluted by all the ships and forts. The flag on Sumter was dipped as we passed by; all went well until we rounded Cape Hatteras and were bearing into Fortress Monroe. Passing a pilot boat, the captain shouted, "What's the news?" The reply came back over the water, "The President is dead." We could not and did not believe it. Soon after, passing another pilot boat, to a similar question the answer came, "Mr. Lincoln has been assassinated." Then we realised the truth. With saddened hearts we sailed up to Fortress Monroe, which was already draped in black. Here our party separated, some coming direct to New York, the rest going to Washington to take part in the ceremonies attending the funeral of Mr. Lincoln.
I have spoken more fully of the Sumter excursion because it was an important national event, and because it was so closely identified with Plymouth Church and Brooklyn. If it had not been for Mr. Beecher there would have been no Oceanus voyage.
Henry Ward Beecher's Statue, Brooklyn, N. Y.
QUAKER CITY EXCURSION
he plan of the Quaker City Excursion, made famous by Mark Twain, originated in Plymouth Church, when Mr. Beecher contemplated writing a Life of Christ. He expressed a desire to visit the sacred places of Palestine, where our Lord lived and where He was crucified, and wanted several members of Plymouth Church to go with him. A committee was formed to arrange for the journey, composed of Captain C. Duncan, John T. Howard and Rufus R. Graves. A very beautiful and substantial side-wheel steamship, the Quaker City, was chartered for the journey, and the number of passengers was limited to one hundred and fifty. The price of the passage for each person was fixed at twelve hundred and fifty dollars. Mr. Beecher engaged passage, but at the last moment decided not to go.
The Secretary of State furnished us with letters commending us to the attention of the foreign governments which we might visit, and on the eighth day of June we sailed out of New York harbour. Our first stopping place was at the Azores, then we went to Gibraltar and Marseilles, where time was given to the passengers to visit Paris and London; next to Genoa, from which port we made visits to Milan, Venice and Lake Como. The next stopping place was Leghorn, where we turned aside to Florence and Pisa and visited Garibaldi, who was then at his home. From Leghorn our course took us to Naples, giving time to see Rome, Vesuvius and Pompeii; then on through the Straits of Messina, across the Ionian Sea, through the Grecian Archipelago to Athens, Greece; through the Dardanelles and the Sea of Marmora to Constantinople. After one week's stay in that Oriental city, the route lay through the Bosphorus, across the Black Sea to Sebastopol. After visiting the famous battlefields of the Crimea, we sailed to Odessa, in the northwest corner of the Black Sea, ours being the first American steamship which ever entered that harbour. While staying there a telegram was received from the Emperor of Russia inviting us to visit him at his palace, Livadia, at Yalta. Yalta is a very beautiful place on the slope of a mountain, overlooking the Black Sea, about two hundred miles east of Odessa, and is the summer home of the imperial family of Russia. The Grand Duke Michael's palace, Orianda, the Grand Duke Vladimir's, Worondow, and their grounds join those of the Emperor. The invitation was accepted. Mrs. Griswold's story of the visit as given in the "Pilgrimage" is as follows: